1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to data processing systems and, more particularly, to providing hover assistance in user interfaces.
2. Description of the Related Art
The creation of increasingly powerful computer (or computing) systems and a continuously improved information technology (IT) infrastructure are accompanied by a widespread development and use of complex and feature rich software applications. In order to ameliorate the acceptance of such software applications, user-friendly user interfaces, such as graphical user interfaces (GUI), have been developed.
The advent of GUIs resulted in an expectation among end users that software applications include intuitive and aesthetically pleasing graphical interfaces through which end users can effectively interact with the software applications. Thus, GUIs largely contributed to the fact that many users do not read software application manuals before attempting to use a software application. In other words, a user typically relies on the intuitive nature of the application and the corresponding graphical user interface itself.
Intuitiveness of a software application is often improved by hover assistance. Hover assistance consists in displaying help information when a mouse cursor moves (or “hovers”) over a particular object of a computer display screen for a predefined amount of time. When the mouse cursor is removed from the particular object of the computer display screen, the help information is removed from display. Hover assistance is pervasive throughout many existing operating systems. Furthermore, in currently developed software applications, most toolbar icons, taskbar buttons and displayed images are associated with hover assistance.
However, hover assistance is frequently not sufficient to effectively satisfy user requests for information concerning objects on the computer display screen. In such cases, the users need to open a separate help window and to perform a search to identify a level of help information that corresponds to their particular requirements. One difficulty with this approach is that the user generally needs to launch the help window and to search through keywords and documentations displayed in the help window to determine the required information. However, the search can be difficult when, for example, terminology used in the help window is not consistent with terminology used in the GUI or the hover assistance. This frequently leads to unproductivity and user frustration.
Therefore, there is a need for an improved technique for providing hover assistance.